Day 6

     I got to sleep in this morning until 12:45 which was nice. Almost 12 hours of sleep; here it is 6pm and I've not needed a nap, and I don't feel overly tired. So I guess that's good. After breakfast I was taken by surprised and forced to go on a walk. I was going to work on my homework, so that kinda annoyed me. We walked for an hour, by the end of which my knees and hips were killing me. Mommy and Daddy talked to me about managing my finances (which I really suck at), and trying to get help for my problems. Of course, the medical world has months-long waiting lists, so it could be quite a while. They're going to help me not get worse until then.

     Finally when we got home i was able to work on my project. It's actually pretty fun, at least so far. I'm making a board game for my Crime and Media class. It's sort of a mix between Monopoly, Life and Harry Potter Trivia.I've spend all afternoon continuing with my research for trivia questions. I just read the Frizl case and I was thoroughly intrigues, astonished and disturbed. If you have the time, you really should read the article!

     Guess what? Pizza for dinner! Guess what else? It's being ruined. I have an issue with "ruining good food". I'll eat my healthy vegetables no problem! Just don't try to make something like spaghetti, pizza or hamburgers healthy. I hate it when my parents ruin spaghetti sauce by putting in mushrooms and zucchini and peppers. Spaghetti sauce to me is strictly bolognese, and you cannot tarnish it's deliciousness with crap. I'll have a side salad or steamed broccoli or grilled zucchini, just stop ruining my whole meal. Tonight is pizza, yes, but it has chicken instead of pepperoni (and we all know how I feel about chicken!), mushrooms (the only good thing), green and red peppers, olives, onions. That's not even a type of pizza. I'm okay with all dressed, I actually really like it. But pepperoni is like the best part of a pizza, and what's the point of making something delicious in to something gross. Makes me not like pizza. No, I take that back. I like pizza, just not this. Grilled chicken with BBQ sauce, fine. But not chicken and tomato sauce. I am very annoyed. I will try to give a fair assessment later.

~Mourning pizza,

Don't Steal in California!

     Last night in Crim class, we watched a movie about the prisons in Susanville CA. The idea is that they're taking over the county, supposedly providing jobs, but actually taking away business (which loses jobs) and imports products instead of buying locally. The film followed a few peoples' stories, and one in particular I found quite amazing.

     This couple (Lonnie and Jennifer) and their two sons were living in their car, and Lonnie had a job interview somewhere near Susanville. They literally had just enough money to fill the gas tank to get there. The kids were sitting in the back screaming and crying out of starvation because they hadn't been able to afford food for a few days. So they stopped in Susanville, and Lonnie went in to a depanneur (aka: variety store for all you crazy non-Quebeckers) and stole a loaf of bread, some noodles and juice, basically just a bit of food for his kids, and the groceries were worth only $28. He was caught and sent to prison for sixteen months! That's almost a year and a half. For feeding his kids by stealing $30. I feel like I have that much money in change in my couch cushions; it's basically nothing! What the crap is the big deal?! It was so depressing to hear him talk about how useless he felt when he couldn't feed his kids, and of course he was on probation for a year, and couldn't leave Susanville. Catch-22 here: all the jobs in Susanville have been wiped out because of the prison, so you're limited to prison guard or unemployed. Being an "ex-con" he isn't allowed to work in the prison. And he needs a job to support his family and be eligible for release from parole. What bullshit.

     I have a quilter's workshop on Saturday to make a Celtic table runner. I'm so excited! It's going to be my first workshop, and I am actually a little worried how I'm supposed to get all my stuff there: machine, rotary mat, fabric, iron, accessories and supplies...and I have to take the bus. I'll post a picture when I get home on Saturday. The fabric I picked is gorgeous, but so not me! I'm so excited to see how it will turn out!

Chris Brown: to like or not to like?

     So I'm on the bus on the way to my three hour Crim class. I don't want to go, but I have to hand in my paper that's half done and a week late. I'm sitting here listening to my Spring 2011 playlist, and the song Yeah3x by Chris Brown is playing. Because I try to rate most of my music, I was deciding between 3 stars (I like it) and 4 stars (I really like it, and want to add it to my playlist of favourites). I decided on 4 stars because as it turns out, I really did want it to be rotated in with my other favourite songs.

     My train of through went like this: I started thinking what's in my playlist of favourites, and I realized Chris Brown's song Forever is like a 6/5 and definitely on that list. Since I just saw his interview with Good Morning America, I was thinking about that situation. He's totally cracked. I understand that he wants to talk about his album, but you're in the wrong and you're in the spotlight, you can't exactly tell the world when the situation is over. Rihanna can, as the victim, but Chris Brown cannot.

     Insert: in all honestly i dont even know if i believe the whole situation. i admit i was out of the know at the time, but for some reason I didn't really feel like following it. I'm not very star-obsessed, I really just like the music. Please don't anyone take this the wrong way, I am not belitling the situation.

     Musically I am so on Chris' side. I said musically, people, I don't endorse domestic violence! I was thinking about all their music, and I really hate a lot of Rihanna's music (well, really dislike). Umbrella, Don't Stop The Music, Rude Boy, Only Girl In The World. (I do like some songs, like Love The Way You Lie and Rehab♥). And Chris Brown's music I love: Yeah3x, With You, Forever♥. I just realized how odd that was.

     BTW: Forever is ♥♥♥

Criminology Paper = Prison!

"Prison is not only a place for the incarcerated."

     Definitely. Prison takes the form of Criminology papers and is out to get me.

     Okay, I will admit that the article I am (almost) finished reading is moderately interesting. It's a 40 page story describing inch by inch the experiences of family who want to visit their incarcerated loved ones at the San Quentin prison. It really opens the eyes of yours truly; an upper-middle class young adult who really doesn't know the first thing about imprisonment (other than what I learn in my classes of course). I have come to the conclusion that while being imprisoned is no walk in the park, it sucks just as much to be the wife or child who is attempting to visit their criminal kin. Okay, lesson learned, can I go play Mario Kart now?!

     Yes, I am full aware that I am procrastinating. But somehow I got suckered in to telling my teacher that I would be finished this monstrous creation by tonight, and now I'm going back and kicking my yesterday's dumb-ass behind. I am in the frame of mind right now that it is a completely hopeless task, and I may as well give up before I waste my time trying to write a good paper; it will probably get an F anyway, seeing as it's so late.

     It doesn't help that Dublin is sitting on the chair staring at me. Taunting me is more like it. He's communicating that he may shit in a box but he can sleep and play and eat whenever he wants, and that to him, right now I look pathetic.

"Suck an elf!"

Um little insert: apparently in the UK, wives of prisoners are subject to strip searches due to increased security measures, and are considered "humiliating, especially, for example for women, who ... might be asked to remove [tampons] (Codd 2008, p. 61)". So what do the wardens say: "Um, excuse me miss, would you mind removing your tampon, I need to check your vagina to see if you're smuggling in heroin." Sexual harassment much? WTF?!!

Long, Long Time...

     Does that sound like the title or bridge of a country song?

     Anyway, I know it has been a really long time. Shame on me! I know. Perhaps I have no legitimate excuse, but I will attempt to offer one nonetheless; I have been so busy!! There were midterms, then I got sick, and now I have finals, and Matt is sick.

     When was the last time I went to class? Why are none of my papers done? Counting down two hours until my ten page Criminology paper is due. I have to write five pages on each topic, one of which is how families of prisoners are forced into their own version of incarceration due to the stigma of association. I feel that that topic is fairly easy to BS my way through, I think I can come up with enough information to fill hopefully four pages. The other topic is about how prisoners lose their self identity from the outside when they serve time, and how they are prisonized and form a new identity. I don't know how to crap that. There's only like half the necessary readings in my course pack, and it's soooo looong. I also have an eight page paper due tomorrow night on Masters and Johnson. While the topic is interesting at least, I need twenty articles and they're so long too.

     Why can't I just sleep as much as I want, take a bubble bath, read, and play computer games? Why do I have to have responsibilities :(

This and That

     How depressing is it when you have (most of) a day off, and you make all these plans only to realize you don't have time for them? Midterms are over, and I have until 3:00 today to do whatever I want. Naturally, I've had to put off doing all these things since at least Saturday, so I've been really looking forward to it. Sleeping in!!! I have a couple of blogs to write, a book review, some TV shows to catch up on... I also promised Holly I'd do the rest of the dishes (tangent: why does it seem at night that there are only a few dishes to do, but by the time our late-night snack, breakfast, and randomly found dishes are added to the mix, the amassment is depressingly high?) On top of all that, my room is still an unbearable mess, and I have a mountain of laundry in desperate need of attending-to. I guess I'll plug away at the list until I have to leave for class; at least that way I'll be able to get a few things done.

     So my blog entry for the day is a little bit of "this and that". A few random thoughts from here and there which I have been collecting for the past few days in order to put them down now.

     Last night during my Prison & Liberty class, I noticed that the guy sitting beside me had an odd smell. It was fairly distracting, especially since I couldn't put my finger on it right away. Then all of a sudden about halfway through the exam it came to me: cilantro. Yah, I tweaked. Then in the middle of the exam, I found I was no longer trying to think of the characteristics of the penitentiary as described by Foucault, or the explanation of what is "new rehabilitation", but of the rant I was going to post in my blog. Cilantro?! I mean, come on!

     So it came to me that I would have to post this list at one point, and now seemed liek the perfect time. Ladies and Gentlemen, all my Lifers alike, "I proudly present your dinner" (sorry, I couldn't help it). I present to you the list of foods I hate.

• Cilantro. Don't ever try to feed me a dish that this herb came anywhere near. It ruins my appetite, it makes me feel sick, and it's just absolutely horrible. I don't have a psychological reason as to why I hate cilantro, it's just repulsive and disgusting.
• Indian Curry. This food is synonymous with vomit. It actually warrants me to use "the B word" (but I'll suffice with this, I don't want to see it written down). The smell sets my stomach into self-destruct mode. My brain tries to melt so that my sense of smell is dulled so that I don't keel over and die on the spot. In all honestly, I'm not exaggerating. [A little aside for all you smart asses out there: I do put curry on my Kraft Dinner (and don't knock that 'til you try it, trust me!). Curry on KD is nothing remotely similar to curried goat or chickpeas or whatever those indians eat. For your uneducated information, Curry is an umbrella term for an Indian or Asian themed mixture of spices, including turmeric, coriander and cumin (also repulsive). The curry powder you buy at the grocery store in Canada tastes and smells nothing like the curry of Asia. So no, I am not a hypocrite or prejudiced or whatever.]
• Cinnamon Hearts. Kill-me-now. These monstrous confectionery  nightmares should never come anywhere near me. This actually extends to all fake cinnamon. Toothpaste and gum are the worst. I have been known to reflexively gag(not throw up) in the direction of one who kisses me, tasting of such nightmare. "This is what evil must taste like!" Yes Phoebe, mockolate=fake cinnamon. I send out a little warning: I will break up with you if you give me cinnamon hearts on valentine's day. [I'd also break up with you if you tried to propose to me with a yellow gold ring, I mean come on! Though I suppose this isn't food so perhaps it's a moot point right now.]
• Green Peas. This is probably the lesser of all evils, but still agitates my gag reflexes. My mom used to make fried rice and put in green peas, and I always ate around them. Let's be honest here, green peas are good for one thing, and that is to be used as a freezer pack to reduce swelling. Am I right?! (yes)

     While I was showering last night and washing my hair, somehow I started thinking about shampoo and conditioner, and how they came to be. In all 208 episodes of How It's Made, they don't address this at all. Maybe I should put in a request. Anyway, I was looking at the ingredients of my conditioner, and the first two were water and cetyl alcohol. Who decided to mix up water and alcohol and put it in their hair, hoping for a softer texture?! Of course I know that's not how conditioner came to be, but it provided me with a few minutes of quizzical entertainment. [This explains the actual history of conditioner.] One more hair comment: I need a haircut! My hair is all dry and I have about two inches of pure split ends that needs to be fixed. So my mom will be posing as a beautician next week...

     Somehow I stumbled upon YouTube looking up really cute videos of babies and baby animals. I absolutely need to share with you the cutest and my most favourite commercials: Kinder Chocolate, HP ePrint.

     

     Now I really think I should get back to doing something productive!